Black Knights

“Elegant, complex, and original, Black Knights analyzes tropes of racialized blackness in popular epics to break new ground in Arabic literary studies. By drawing out the humanity of literary characters, medieval storytellers, and nonelite audiences, Schine shows how the racial logics embedded in these tales form an untapped archive of premodern social life.” -- Kristina Richardson, University of Virginia “Schine’s Black Knights builds on an impressive range of scholarship to present the reader with a carefully nuanced discussion of the meanings of race in premodern Arabic popular epics that both educates and enthralls. This book follows the makings of race through its relationship to gender, natural philosophy, and faith to expose the concept’s contingency but also its centrality and productivity to our understanding of Arabic culture. This work will be a touchstone for future scholars working on race more broadly, especially in the context of epic narratives.” -- Justin Stearns, New York University, Abu Dhabi “Through close, supple analyses of popular Arab-Islamic heroic epics, Schine expertly shows how blackness, both symbolic and real, is put to dynamic use. Her nuanced reading of female characters, in particular, shows how racialized and othered subjects benefit from inclusion in the Arab-Islamic order. Black Knights is indispensable for any grounded and informed understanding of the history of blackness and racialization in premodern Islam and in the medieval world.” -- Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University